Legends and Bandoleros raced Saturday, June 8, at Colorado National Speedway (CO). Winners were Danny Medina (Legends), Madison Stanley (Bandolero Bandits), and Reagan Fruge (Bandolero Outlaws).
Stories below as posted by the track (Legends and Bandolero portions extracted for posting on LN).
LEGENDS STORY
Danny Medina, driver of the No. 15, and rookie Wyatt Dent, driver of the No. 68, took the start from the front row. Medina sprang into the lead as Dent faded, falling in behind the No. 78C Of Colton Crocker. The No. 03 of Darrell L. Stewart found himself hung out to dry on the outside as he was passed by several more cars, including the No. 16 of Travis Roe, who took over third. Crocker continued his pursuit of Medina for the lead. Stewart battled back with Dent for P6, but was able to prevent himself from losing another spot and kept Dent behind him. By Lap 13, Crocker pulled even with Medina and put him in the rearview; meanwhile, the No. 88F of Cade Fox pushed past the No. 12 of Bryanna Bruce for fourth. Lapped traffic battled two-by-two ahead of Crocker, nearly costing him the lead, but he was able to negotiate the slower cars and kept his lead – until Medina caught him just a lap later, slicing by in Turn 1 and taking off with the top spot. Now Medina faced lapped traffic head-on, keeping one eye out the windshield and the other in the rearview as Crocker faded. Fox was able to finally take third away from Roe, meanwhile. As lapped traffic lightened, Medina continued to stretch his lead and snagged the win over Crocker after a clean flag-to-flag race.
BANDOLERO BANDITS
Fast Dash – 7 Laps
The Bandoleros was the only division able to run some Dashes before the rain hit. As such, Emersyn Weitzel’s No. 44 led to the green flag for the Bandit Dash, although the No. 95J of Jaxson Muhler was credited with leading the first lap. He began to stretch his lead as the No. 14 of Austin Steinke, who started fifth, swung wide into third and began pressuring Steinke. Muhler held the lead all the way to the checkered flag.
Dash – 7 Laps
In the Bandit Jr. Dash, the No. 84 of Kaylie Snyder jumped out front right away, while the No. 72 of Connor Kellogg shouldered his way toward the front. However, he got sideways heading into the infield turn, and Kaylie Snyder held onto the lead, although the No. 96 of James Snyder closed fast. James Snyder took advantage of slower traffic to shoot into the lead to win.
Feature – 12 Laps
Steinke and Weitzel started on the front row for the Feature. Steinke got away with the lead, but not for long – the No. 07 of Madison Stanley went three wide with several lapped cars and ended up on top. She continued to lead, navigating through slower traffic, but she wasn’t able to deal with lapped cars and Steinke, who took advantage of her distraction to sweep into first place. However, just a few laps later, the inverse happened as Steinke was held up by lapped cars, allowing Stanley to get around him. Coming to the line, though, Steinke mounted a charge and went side-by-side with Stanley, beating her to the line by a hair for the first win of his career.
BANDOLERO OUTLAWS
Dash – 10 Laps
The No. 12 of Aspyn Lange made a big move at the drop of the green flag to get to fourth, following the No. 61 of Lilly Tuttle and the No. 5 of Reagan Fruge. Despite contact from the No. 08 of Tanner McKim, Tuttle was able to keep going. Tuttle didn’t let it ruffle her and kept her lead, leaving McKim and Lange to sort things out for second place. Then, Lange spun out and was struck head-on by the No. 2 of Dutch Vanderwal on Lap 7, ending the race. Thankfully, both drivers were ok after the hard impact; Tuttle was credited with the Dash win.
Feature – 12 Laps
It didn’t take long for Fruge to take the lead, going three-wide with the No. 23 of Peyton Opperman and the No. 18 of Jake Boren to make it happen. Fruge got away with a decent lead as McKim swept into third place. Opperman spun but kept his race car out of further trouble. Lange, able to race again after the hard Dash crash, quickly caught up to Fruge, cutting his advantage to a bumper as she pressured him with few laps remaining. Fruge wouldn’t be denied and clung to his lead, winning over Lange.
RESULTS
Legends – 25 Laps
15 Danny Medina
78C Colton Crocker
88F Cade Fox
16 Travis Roe
12 Bryanna Bruce
03 Darrell L Stewart
68 Wyatt Dent (R)
6 Scotty Scott
45 Cole Tuttle
00 Chris Saykally
21L Madilyn Lange (R)
4W Stuart Wilkerson
75 Austin Hackenberg
27 Brian Harlow
17 Jeremy Krueger
28P Adam Powers
38 Garrett Wilson
33 Dillyn Kellogg
14 Jake Nuttall
18 JJ Sanders
01 Gary Land
62 Erik Bain
21X Corey Pearson (R)
19 Dominic Moss
56 Nicholas Gunther
97 Billy Blevins
78 Ashlyn Himler
53 Taylor Baker (R)
17K Marc Karashinski (R)
Bandolero Outlaw – 12 Laps
5 Reagan Fruge
12 Aspyn Lange
08 Tanner McKim
89 Justin Barnard
18 Jake Boren
61 Lilly Tuttle
23 Peyton Opperman
60 Liam Hammond
DNS 2 Dutch VanderWal
Bandolero Bandit – 12 Laps
07 Madison Stanley
14 Austin Steinke
95J Jaxson Muhler
29 Nora Smith
44 Emersyn Weitzel
98 Kyleigh Novak
96 James Snyder
72 Connor Kellogg
84 Kaylie Snyder
42 Lee Malavasic
24 Ayva Snyder
77 Scarlett Jones
Photo credits: track photos
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